If there is a shift in the present era, it is not occurring where those hoping for a radical change in the type of society were expecting, but rather at the expense of a whole section of those who were banking on its continuity, believing they would find some benefit in it; that is the irony of the story. For it is the end of the capitalism of seduction, of that period when the system, during its rise to power and its globalization, saw fit to seek the at least partial assent of the populations where its main bases of development were located.
Thus in these apparently privileged regions, Social Security, a Pension system, the opening up to consumption through credit, the staging of a pseudo-democracy under the guise of electoral representation, as well as the establishment of some counter-powers giving the impression of a certain societal balance, were introduced. Some even spoke of this state of affairs as Western culture and even civilization. All of these things allowed for the emergence of a middle class to whom these various concessions of Capital gave the feeling of benefitting from a certain comfort and security in life. It was therefore to this middle class that the role of representing public opinion as a whole was entrusted, while concealing the fact that this middle class was by no means in the majority and that the majority of the population remained in extremely precarious conditions. What was even more concealed was that the comfort acquired during this period by the middle class of the so-called advanced developed countries was at the expense of all the countries and populations of what was then called the Third World. Countries and populations that the armed wing of capitalism had taken over, without any limits or scruples, and had driven to ruin. This is not the place to go into the rather monstrous history of colonialism and then neo-colonialism and the completely mafia-like methods that were then used to carry out this plundering, but the self-satisfied middle class would do well to look at it to see at what price its comfort and security have been acquired on a global scale. This might enable it, despite its thick blinkers, to better understand this new shift that is underway and of which it is now the target.
Because capitalism, through its almost absolute control of the financial circuits, civil and military technologies – surveillance and repression – and the different types of media, does not see why it should continue to burden itself with and fatten these underlings of capital who are now of no use to it. The pursuit of its valorization and the continuity of its profits in its cannibalistic universe now therefore requires the purging of a large part of this middle class, which is condemned, in the more or less short term, to join the innumerable cohort of the poor and the neglected, whom it had until now always preferred to ignore and often even to despise.
Despite the obvious progress and acceleration of this process, a significant part of this middle class prefers to continue to cling to the coattails of its masters, probably hoping that its servility will allow it to be spared for some time to come. This particular social category has always preferred illusion – for example, that of its particular importance – to any awareness of a reality common to our humanity. It also knows that it can hardly count on the solidarity of the great mass of those it has always considered negligible and of little concern.
In its growing panic and historical blindness, another part of this social category believes it can save itself by aligning itself with the most reactionary tendencies of the social structure, hoping for salvation from some fantasized order that can only accentuate the chaos and hasten its downfall.
From this state of affairs, we must recognize that the tipping point that we, for our part, are calling for and committed to, namely the complete overthrow of capitalist domination and all its categories and the establishment of a communalist society, will in all likelihood have to take place in a more or less chaotic environment.
We must therefore already consider our strategic orientations with this in mind.
Translated by TerKo with the help of a free translation tool.
Rebounds:
- “FASCIST” – A Primer on Social Ecology
- Shifting Paradigms – Emerging Worlds, Desirable Possibilities by Jérôme Baschet